Thoughts on Recent Developments in Syria and Iraq.

About this time last year the US, UK and French governments were looking into the possibility of offering support to rebel groups in Syria. I made my opposition very clear on this Blog and many others. My opposition was on the basis that we did not know who we would be arming and I made the claim, as did many others, that weapons or support would only play to the favour of Al Qaeda or other Islamist groups in the country.

The events of last week have clearly shown that my fears were not unfounded. Last week ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), one of the largest rebel groups in Syria, captured Mosul, Iraq’s Second City. They forced people from their homes and began to attack the ‘legitimate’ government of Iraq. They’ve captured Turkish Diplomats and have begun to institute Sharia Law in the area.

Not only have they done that but they have also ceased a large number of weapons from the Iraqi army, many of them US made. This now means that ISIS has access to some of the most advanced weaponry being used in the Middle East today.

This has made two things clear: The first being that had we given the so called ‘Good Rebels’ weapons last year they would have ended up in the hands of the Islamists. And that Iraq is now under threat from complete takeover, more so than it was whilst the US and its Allies were still there.

However the people who are at the most threat from this are, once again, the Kurds. A people whose homeland has never been recognised, that live in Northern Iraq, Southern Turkey and Eastern Syria. They are likely to bear the brunt of ISIS attacks as soon as the weapons are transported back to Syria.

Since the start of the Civil War they have managed to hold their homeland in the East against both the Army and other rebel groups. The aim was to eventually help Iraqi Kurdistan leave the main body of Iraq and unify with the Kurdish parts of Syria to form a Sovereign Kurdish state.

It is now likely that this will all be undone and the Kurds will go on living without a recognised homeland. And so the side effects of one of the greatest mistakes of the early 20th Century, never recognising Kurdistan, goes on.

In the mean time the West is in an even worse position than when it started. Our enemies are now armed with our own weapons and where we thought we had built a stable state we have left nothing but ruins. What was once the cradle of civilisation looks set to fall into chaos once more.